American Farm Bureau President Zippy Duvall sent a letter to the Environmental Protection Agency asking the agency to allow farmers to use existing dicamba stocks for the upcoming season. An Arizona court vacated the registration of three dicamba products critically important for farmers in fighting resistant weeds.
“Many farmers have already made planting decisions to use dicamba-tolerant crop systems and have planned to use dicamba products in the near future,” Duvall says. “These farmers invested in substantial sums in the dicamba-resistant seeds in reliance on EPA’s prior approval of dicamba on these crops.”
He adds that without those products, not only are the substantial investments at risk, but farmers don’t know how they’ll protect their crops. AFB is asking EPA to issue an existing stock order to ensure dicamba remains available to farmers throughout the growing season. “We are committed to the safe use of all crop protection tools,” Duvall adds.
